CHERNOBYL
G'day folks,
Today I feature some background information on a disaster.
At 1:23
a.m. on April 26th, 1986, reactor four at the nuclear power plant near
Chernobyl, Ukraine exploded, releasing more than a hundred times the radiation
of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Thirty-one people died shortly
after the explosion and thousands more are expected to die from the long-term
effects of radiation. The Chernobyl nuclear disaster dramatically changed the
world's opinion about using nuclear reaction for power.
The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant
The Chernobyl nuclear power plant was built in the wooded marshlands of
northern Ukraine, approximately 80 miles north of Kiev. Its first reactor went
online in 1977, the second in 1978, third in 1981, and fourth in 1983; two more
were planned for construction. A small town, Pripyat, was also built near the
Chernobyl nuclear power plant to house the workers and their families.
Routine Maintenance and a Test on Reactor Four
On April
25, 1986, reactor four was going to be shut down for some routine maintenance.
During the shutdown, technicians were also going to run a test. The test was to
determine whether, in case of a power outage, the turbines could produce enough
energy to keep the cooling system running until the backup generators came
online.
The
shutdown and test began at 1 a.m. on April 25th. To get accurate results from
the test, the operators turned off several of the safety systems, which turned
out to be a disastrous decision. In the middle of the test, the shutdown had to
be delayed nine hours because of a high demand for power in Kiev. The shutdown
and test continued again at 11:10 p.m. on the night of April 25th.
A Major Problem
Just
after 1 a.m. on April 26th, 1986, the reactor's power dropped suddenly, causing
a potentially dangerous situation. The operators tried to compensate for the
low power but the reactor went out of control. If the safety systems had
remained on, they would have fixed the problem; however, they were not. The
reactor exploded at 1:23 a.m.
The World Discovers the Meltdown
The world
discovered the accident two days later, on April 28th, when operators of the
Swedish Forsmark nuclear power plant in Stockholm registered unusually high
radiation levels near their plant. When other plants around Europe began to
register similar high radiation readings, they contacted the Soviet Union to
find out what had happened. The Soviets denied any knowledge about a nuclear
disaster until 9 p.m. on April 28th, when they announced to the world that one
of the reactors had been "damaged."
Attempts to Clean Up
While
trying to keep the nuclear disaster a secret, the Soviets were also trying to
clean it up. At first they poured water on the many fires, then they tried to
put them out with sand and lead and then nitrogen. It took nearly two weeks to
put the fires out. Citizens in the nearby towns were told to stay indoors.
Pripyat was evacuated on April 27th, the day after the disaster had begun; the
town of Chernobyl wasn't evacuated until May 2, six days after the explosion.
Physical
clean-up of the area continued. Contaminated topsoil was placed into sealed
barrels and radiated water contained. Soviet engineers also encased the remains
of the fourth reactor in a large, concrete sarcophagus to prevent additional
radiation leakage. The sarcophagus, constructed quickly and in dangerous
conditions, had already begun to crumble by 1997. An international consortium
has begun plans to create a containment unit that will be placed over the
current sarcophagus. It is expected to be completed in 2013.
Death Toll from the Chernobyl Disaster
It is estimated that the radiation from the Chernobyl disaster was 100
times more powerful than the atomic
bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki . Thirty-one people died shortly after the
explosion; however, thousands of others who were exposed to high levels of
radiation will suffer serious health effects, including cancers, cataracts, and
cardiovascular disease.
Clancy's comment: Mm ... Nature creates some great disasters, but humans sure do a good job of stuffing things up.
I'm ...
Think about this!
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